For Warriors’ Stephen Curry, Staying Power Is Pushed to the Limits

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Stephen Curry has lacked his usual consistency as the Warriors head into Game 6 against the Cavaliers on Thursday looking to capture the N.B.A. title. “I personally have 48 minutes to do what I need to do to help my team win,” he said.CreditEzra Shaw/Getty Images

By Scott Cacciola

June 16, 2016

CLEVELAND — Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors, recently recalled the first time he watched Stephen Curry play basketball.

It was December 2007, and Kerr, who was the general manager of the Phoenix Suns, traveled to Anaheim, Calif., to watch U.C.L.A. play Davidson, which was led by Curry. Kerr came away impressed by the young guard’s skills (even though he shot just 6 of 19 from the field), but he was also struck by his size — something like 6-foot-1 and 145 pounds.

After the game, Kerr ran into Curry’s parents, Dell and Sonya. Sonya Curry had a pointed question for Kerr: “Do you think Steph can make it in the N.B.A.?”

As the years passed, that question stuck with Kerr because it sounded so reasonable at the time: How could this small man possibly survive in a league of giants? Kerr shared this anecdote last month, when Curry was collecting his second straight Most Valuable Player Award. Curry has not only survived, of course. He has thrived.

But while Curry has physically matured since his days at Davidson — Golden State lists him at 6-3, 185 pounds — he still wrestles with behemoths. On Thursday night, Curry will appear in his 197th game, dating to the start of last season, when the Warriors face the Cavaliers in Game 6 of the finals at Quicken Loans Arena.

This one just happens to matter more than most, with the Warriors, who lead the best-of-seven series by three games to two, looking to clinch their second straight championship.

The toll on Curry has been immense. Since the season started in late October, Curry has logged 3,240 minutes of playing time — 54 hours of inviting and absorbing contact from defenders. The Warriors are on the cusp of more history, having already set an N.B.A. record by winning 73 games in the regular season, but Curry is feeling the weight of injury and fatigue.

As the playoffs have worn on, he has adopted the garb of a weekend warrior sweating it out at noontime hoops: protective sleeves on both knees, a gargantuan ice pack occasionally strapped to his right shoulder. Yet he has continued to dismiss questions about his health.

“I can’t even keep a straight face,” Curry said last week. “Whoever said I was getting shoulder surgery and all that kind of stuff — we’ve got bumps and bruises. But we’ll be all right.”

Three questions remain: his mysterious shoulder ailment and his tender right knee; his sloppy decisions in the finals, which have led to 22 turnovers over five games; and his matchup with Kyrie Irving, who was able to shake Curry (and a host of other defenders) en route to 41 points in the Cavaliers’ 112-97 victory in Game 5.

As for expectations? “I don’t really worry about it,” Curry said Wednesday. “I mean, there’s kind of an historical expectation of the all-time greats in this league that have had great finals moments and have had these numbers. None of them played for this team and understood how I try to help my team every single night.”

For four years, Curry avoided serious injury — a stretch of durability that came to an end last month in the Warriors’ first-round series against the Houston Rockets. After spraining his right ankle in Game 1, Curry returned for Game 4 and sprained his right knee when he slipped on a wet spot shortly before halftime. Bad luck. Bad timing.

Even the biggest, strongest athletes in the league get hurt. Curry could not remain immune from injury forever. He just happened to go down as the Warriors were readying themselves for a run at back-to-back titles. After missing two weeks, Curry returned to help the Warriors close out the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference semifinals. He was explosive at times — in his first game back, he set an N.B.A. record by scoring 17 points in overtime — but he lacked his usual consistency.

It has been more of the same in the finals. Consider the numbers. In the regular season, Curry averaged 30.1 points, 6.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds. He shot 50.4 percent from the field and 45.4 percent from 3-point range. He also sank 402 3-pointers, obliterating the N.B.A. record that he had already held, all while coping with a spotlight that burned brighter than ever.

But in the finals, Curry has averaged 22.2 points, 4.6 assists and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 42.4 percent from the field and 42.3 percent from 3-point range. Credit the Cavaliers for playing stout defense and the officials for allowing physical play.

“Yeah, I want to honestly play better and be more consistent,” Curry said. “But the situation is that we’re one game away from winning a second championship, and I personally have 48 minutes to do what I need to do to help my team win.”

Curry said he could live with the missed shots. The turnovers bother him most.

Just 48 more minutes — a task that somehow seems more daunting given everything that Curry has endured in recent weeks. He has already announced that he will forgo the Rio Olympics so he can allow his body to mend over the summer, which is the closest he has come to acknowledging that all is not well.

The huge workload, the lengthy playoff runs — these are the products of his success. But for so many reasons, he can only hope to leave it all behind in Cleveland.